How Dentsu Austria significantly improved efficiency in implementing media campaigns

Dentsu Austria and its brands Amplifi, CARAT, dentsuX, iProspect, isobar, media.at and Vizeum are the leading marketing and media agencies in Austria. About 200 experts provide services ranging from marketing and communication strategies to planning and purchasing, content marketing, digital creation, mobile solutions, performance marketing and programmatic solutions. Dentsu is dedicated to “Innovating the Way Brands Are Built” and employs a total of 45,000 people in 145 countries.

The collaboration between Mercury Media Technology and the Austrian agency officially began in April 2018 with the long-term goal of mastering the increasingly complex challenges in online marketing and fully digitalizing the agency’s media planning. MMT provides Dentsu Austria with a browser-based Media Management Plattform that facilitates campaign management. MMT Mercury allows users to retrieve campaign data in real time by integrating that data into a consolidated data source with comprehensive interface connections. 

Markus Fennes, Director at Amplifi (part of Dentsu) is responsible for digital transformation at the Austrian agency. The media expert is aware that the media landscape is always changing and becoming increasingly dynamic, digital and fragmented. 

"As media management grows significantly more complex, implementing media campaigns in Excel has become outdated."

Markus Fennes
Director Planning and Implementation, Dentsu Austria

Aiko Müller in Interview with Markus Fennes from Dentsu Austria:

Markus, thank you for taking the time to give our readers some insight into your work with MMT. Dentsu Austria has been working with Mercury for two years now. How has the media management platform impacted your typical workday?

I’m in charge of efficient campaign implementation. As Director of Planning and Implementation, I’m responsible for the entire process involved in running digital campaigns. I support our teams when they have questions or are facing challenges. We focus on optimizing processes in order to counter increasing pressure to manage costs, in part through efficient implementation. I also help prepare pitches and work on other client projects.

What skills does the role of Director of Planning and Implementation require?

The Planning and Implementation Unit serves as the central hub for planning, commissioning, optimizing, implementing and reporting for all digital campaigns. My role is to keep in touch with both internal departments and external partners and to scrutinize and advance the processes and communication channels currently being used.

"Mercury automates the entire media process in order to work more efficiently."

Markus Fennes
Director Planning and Implementation, Dentsu Austria

Markus, you’re someone who drives innovation. You knew that Excel-based macros couldn’t possibly be the future of media planning. What do you think are the major challenges being faced by agencies and what features should agencies look for in a media management platform?

As media planning grows significantly more complex, implementing media campaigns in Excel has become outdated. Since the digital aspect of media planning is especially dynamic, flexibility and scalability are key. When you have several media planners working with the tool at the same time, as is the case with us, extensive rights and role management and good communication modules are extremely important. Getting approvals via e-mail should be a thing of the past. The media management platform also needs to be integrated into the media landscape and systems merged via APIs. The ultimate goal is to automate the entire media process in order to work more efficiently.

How did you hear about Mercury? What were your selection criteria?

The media industry is small, and people know each other. We looked into how other agencies work and if they were happy with their solutions. And we found out that most people weren’t. Our colleagues at Dentsu Switzerland have experience with Mercury and had very favorable things to say about the platform. That’s ultimately what convinced us that this was the media management platform that could also help us undergo the necessary transformation.

We’re thrilled to get such positive feedback from our clients. It shows us that we offer a solution that equips agencies to meet the challenges of tomorrow. What requirements did the media management platform need to meet for you and your team?

We decided to go with a practical, solution-oriented platform that was developed by a team that knows how agencies work. That aspect was key. Mercury is designed to meet the needs of all departments involved, including media planning and purchasing, ad operations, optimization, reporting, analysis and disposition. What sets it apart is its attention to detail. Another key feature for us was that the solution is intuitive. Because so many media planners use Mercury every day, we knew that platform’s interface had to be easy to use. Mercury is intuitive and user-friendly. We also needed the tool to be browser-based, so that we could work from anywhere.

We place a lot of importance on staying in close contact with our clients so that we can better understand their problems and what they need. We’re able to do this effectively because our management team and our team leaders each has over 10 years of media management experience. We also strive to help our clients implement our tools by providing precise, extensive support. We have years of experience gained from working with our clients and have developed specific, effective methods for working with transformation processes over the years. What did you think of the implementation process?

MMT worked with us to develop a clear project plan that was tailored to our needs. That made it possible for us to identify and meet the necessary milestones. The implementation phase began in May 2018 and went smoothly. After a short test phase for selected clients, the entire agency adopted Mercury for all of our clients as of August 2018. 

"Since implementing Mercury, we’ve been able to run media campaigns much more efficiently."

Markus Fennes
Director Planning and Implementation, Dentsu Austria

Let’s talk about the changes that went along with switching to Mercury. How has our media management platform affected your workflows? 

Mercury helped us lay the essential foundation for standardizing and automating campaign management. Since implementing Mercury, we’ve been able to run media campaigns much more efficiently. Delivery data is entered into the plans automatically. This allows us to rapidly optimize campaigns and improves data quality by preventing manual error.

"Connecting Mercury data to our data warehouse creates greater transparency, not only for our planners but also for our clients."

Markus Fennes
Director Planning and Implementation, Dentsu Austria

Has it helped improve collaboration with your clients?

Connecting Mercury data to our data warehouse means that data is more readily available and easier to visualize. This creates greater transparency, not only for our planners but also for our clients.

Not only can Mercury be used to implement digital campaigns but also for other media channels, like print, OOH and audio & TV. How extensively do you use Mercury?

We’ve been managing all of our digital campaigns with Mercury. We’re currently working with our Customer Success team to assess our analog media workflows and processes. We think there’s a lot of potentials there to make planning more efficient and to streamline our current processes.

Markus, thank you for your time and your honest answers. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with you, your team and Dentsu!

We hope that this interview with Markus Fennes has given you an idea of how we work at MMT. Maybe some of the aspects discussed remind you of your own business? I’d be more than happy to arrange a personal call to go over any issues that your company might be facing and show you how our leading MMT Mercury can help.